High Hopes

Some high school students deserve a giant gold star for their impressive anti-bullying efforts in recent days.

First, the ridiculously backwards MPAA briefly came to its senses on Thursday and issued a revised PG-13 rating for Bully, replacing its original R. While the film’s director did make some minor edits, the real issue was ensuring the film’s teenage target audience could see Bully in theaters and for the documentary to be more easily screened in schools after its run.

The change can be traced back to one Michigan high schooler, Katy Butler, who was rightfully outraged when Bully was initially given an R rating, dimming prospects of its impact. Over 500,000 folks signed Butler’s petition for a revised MPAA rating, rallying support from members of Congress and celebrities like Meryl Streep, Anderson Cooper, and Ellen DeGeneres. It’s a lesson often taught, but also too quickly forgotten: One student really can make a difference.

Or 1000 students, as this anti-bullying lip-dub video from Cypress Ranch High School in Cypress, Texas, proves. While such school unity for an issue is enough to make one feel better about the future, Cypress Ranch’s “The Bystander Stops The Bully” message resonates even louder because the students’ one-take video uses a catchy, Katy Perry-like original song, “Who Do U Think U R?,” written and performed by fellow classmate, Kaitlyn K.